The Return of Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinners were kind of a big deal growing up. Sundays were the days that often involved elaborate meals—crock pots and bread cookers, special pans and baked desserts, the “good” dishes, the sparkling cider, the “nice” place mats… All pulled from their somewhat inconvenient storage for a starring spot in the Sunday Dinner Show. The smells and sounds of a Sunday afternoon were different than those of the normal weeknight dinners. And the other day, I decided I missed it. And so began the Return of the Sunday Dinner. Exhibit A – two days ago.
I subscribe to Gourmet magazine. (A door-to-door magazine-selling teenager strong-armed me into paying a ridiculous amount for a year of this food-filled publication with her dreams of traveling the world and her well-rehearsed pitch. I’m still trying to remove the “SUCKER” that is apparently tattooed on my forehead.) In last month’s issue there was, what seemed, a wonderful recipe for gratin potatoes and meatloaf; comfort food perfect to help ward off winter’s chill. I decided that on Sundays, unless otherwise rendered unable to get off the couch after church (sometimes this happens… I blame the post-nap headache (sometimes) and HGTV (most of the time)) I would make a nice dinner.
I’m a big fan of gratin potatoes. Any kind of starch cooked in obscene amounts of butter, cream and baked in cheese pretty much sits just fine with me.
I’m not, however, a big fan of meatloaf. In fact, I generally oppose all loaf-shaped, disk-shaped, spherical, and nuggetted meats. Strongly oppose. Like, axis of evil oppose. However, something about the frosty temps outside and the fact, in no small part, that this meatloaf recipe included BACON, had me willing to give it a whirl... er, knead. I gave my slice of meatloaf a bacon hat as seen in the picture at the top of the post. (It’s my own personal belief that almost any food becomes infinitely more edible when under a bacon hat.)
Trying two new, complicated recipes at once was a bit ambitious. But when it comes to cooking (when I’m in the cooking zone,) ambitious is how I roll. The meatloaf turned out really nice as meatloaf goes, so I’ll share the recipe here. The gratin potatoes (pictured above) unfortunately left something to be desired. The nutmeg/salt/pepper mix gave them a really nice, earthy flavor, but they were too soupy for my taste. For all the work that went into them, (i.e. slicing super-thin potato slices for 166 years) I would have been just as happy with some doctored Betty Crocker brand Au Gratin potatoes from a box, which I shall try next time by adding a sprinkle of nutmeg.
To add something healthy to the meal (Thou shalt not neglect one’s food groups), I made some veggies. I was feeling a bit adventurous there, too, so I rejected the frozen broccoli and went straight for the sauteed carrots and those wacky sprouts from Brussels in another dish that the magazine also featured. Those were easy. I managed to over-brown them slightly, but in theory, still an easy recipe. I’ll share that, too.
And so it was with Sunday past, a meal to remember, and recipes to last.

Meatloaf
1 cup fine fresh breadcrumbs from white bread
1/3 cup whole milk

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium celery rib, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

2 TBSP unsalted butter

2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 TBSP cider vinegar

1/4 teasp ground allspice

1/4 lb bacon, chopped (I added more)

1/2 cup pitted prunes, finely chopped (I added just a few because I was skeptical, and also, when I tried to finely chop in my processor they turned to prune goo.)

1 1/2 lb ground beef chuck

1/2 lb ground pork

2 large eggs

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (my Safeway didn't differentiate "flat leaf" anything, so I just used regular parsley tops)

Garnish: cooked bacon strips

Preheat oven to 350. Soak bread crumbs in milk in large bowl. Cook onion, garlic, celery, carrot in butter in large skillet over medium heat until carrot is tender. Remove from heat, stir in Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, allspice, 2 teasp salt, and 1.5 teasp pepper. Add this all to bread crumb mixture. Add finely chopped prunes and bacon. Add meats. Mix it all together with your hands a bit, add the eggs and parsley and continue mixing. Pack into 9x5" oval loaf in the center of a larger 9x13 pan. This allows for yummy end pieces all around. Bake until meat thermometer registers 155F (took mine about 1 1/2 hours). Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Veggies

2 TBSP chopped shallot (I added more)

3 TBSP unsalted butter

1 lb carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2"-thick pieces

1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise

1 cup water

1 TBSP cider vinegar

Cook shallot in half the butter in skillet until softened. Add carrots, sprouts, 3/4 teasp salt, 1/2 teasp pepper and cook until veggies begin to brown. Add water, cover and cook for 5-8 minutes. Stir in vinegar and remaining half of butter and add more salt and pepper to taste.